


A Secret in a Yellow Hat

by Dokuhan



Series: Upgrade [1]
Category: THE iDOLM@STER
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Friendship, Gen, Omega Verse, Teen Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-15
Updated: 2019-10-15
Packaged: 2020-12-16 18:24:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21040724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dokuhan/pseuds/Dokuhan
Summary: Shingen and Ryu are Hideo's new unitmates, he's supposed to share everything with them - even if it might make them think differently.





	A Secret in a Yellow Hat

It’s not like the thought hadn’t crossed Hideo’s mind more than once. It was just a very delicate situation to broach. Ryu and Shingen seemed nice and understanding, but at that point he’d only known them for a little over a week and they hadn’t had much of a chance to speak outside of practice. Letting them into the more private parts of his life had to happen at some point, but it was more of a question about how and when.

So when Shingen suggested having dinner together after practice Hideo had offered to host, figuring it would be the best way to get everything out in the open.

The three of them were squished together in a train car that seemed just a bit too filled up for four in the afternoon. They were halfway through the two hour ride between Tokyo and Kanagawa and there was no turning back, so Hideo gathered all of his courage and cleared his throat. “Um, before we head to my place, I need to make a stop. We can pick up food somewhere after that. Sorry for the trouble.”

Ryu leaned forward, turning to face him. “That’s fine, I still can’t believe you make this commute to get to the office. I thought mine was bad.”

“I’m still living with my family. I might start looking for something a bit closer if this all works out.”

Shingen, who was sitting between them, clapped Hideo’s shoulder. “Don’t say ‘if’. This is happening.” He paused for a moment. “But saving money for a little while is probably a good idea. Now I’m starting to worry about my budget.”

Hideo nodded, putting on a weak smile as he rubbed his palms against the legs of his pants. Anxiety rarely got to him; he prided himself on his ability to keep his head straight in tough situations. Sure, he had worries, but there was almost always a solution in the end. There had to be. Still, all of the worst situations played out in his mind, making his stomach twist and cramp up for the rest of the ride.

As they navigated out of the station an hour later, swimming through a mad rush of people, he pointed to the right. There were a few other people heading the same way, closer to Shingen’s age than his own. “We’re going this way first,” he explained, “and then we’ll circle back.” He started walking without giving more of an explanation.

Somehow, Ryu seemed to be the first to notice that something wasn’t right. He jogged up to next to him, “Hideo-san, is something wrong?”

It was a really simple question, but something about it made his head spin. He took a deep breath, waving his hand. “Not really. Honest.” He looked back just to see Shingen’s concerned frown, and decided it was best to just keep looking forward. “Ryu, Shingen, I’m sorry if this is a bit personal…you’re both alphas, aren’t you?”

In a different time, that question would have held a lot more weight. Hideo’s grandparents had told stories about intricate courting rituals, and how lucky they’d been to both be betas. Sex education classes had more than a few horror stories about male omegas dying in childbirth, or female alphas being killed in infancy because they were harder to marry off. Now, there were options – advanced birth control, better suppressants, expanded rights. There were still prejudice and hurtful jokes, but knowing one’s secondary gender was just a common courtesy and not something that could ruin your entire life. 

Shingen sped up a bit to catch up with them as well. “Is that an issue? Producer told us that most of the agency is made up of betas, but I really hope you don’t think we’re going to start—”

“Oh! No, of course not. I don’t think you’re going to like…start calling the shots or whatever.”

“Are you worried we’re not going to listen to you?” Ryu added, looking just a bit worried. “We’re totally okay with you being the leader, Hideo-san. You’re probably picking up lessons faster than the rest of us.”

“No, really that’s not it.” Hideo rubbed his face, leading them around a corner. He stopped in front of a building with a large gate, “I just want you guys to know something. Before we get too caught up in this and we can’t change anything. We’re here, by the way.”

The two of them turned their attention to the building and seemed to notice the sign that said “kindergarten” at the same time. Ryu looked just a bit more confused and looked around as if he might have been staring at the wrong place. Shingen, on the other hand, looked like he was starting to catch on.

“Are we picking up one of your siblings? Or another relative?”

“Um.” Hideo hesitated a bit. “Something like that. I’ll be right back.” He quickly made his way onto the school grounds, acknowledging a few parents in particular that he passed by. This was the make it or break it moment, but the only way to do it was to rush headlong into the wind.

He returned only a few moments later, holding a little boy dressed in a blue smock and yellow hat. Hideo took a deep breath and looked his unitmates directly in the eyes, “Shingen, Ryu – this is my son, Katsuhiko.” He looked back at the little boy and softly explained, “Katsu-chan, these are _touchan_’s new friends – Kimura-san and Shingen-san. They’re going to be visiting a lot. What do we say to new people?”

Katsuhiko looked up at him, pouting just a bit before burying his face into Hideo’s neck. He still managed to mumble out, “Nice to meet you,” so Hideo considered that a small victory. In all honesty, he wished he could do the same thing instead of having to find out what Ryu and Shingen thought of him. Luckily, he didn’t have to.

“It’s nice to meet you too, Katsuhiko-kun.” Shingen was the first to answer, already taking this all in stride. He leaned in a little closer. “You can call me Seiji if you like.”

“He’s a little bit shy,” Hideo was quick to explain, adjusting Katsuhiko in his arms. “He couldn’t stop crying the first two days he was here. I almost didn’t make it to work, I felt so bad.”

“My niece was the same way; they grow out of it pretty fast. He looks so much like you, Hideo.”

“Everyone in my family gets stuck with this face, so it’s probably doesn’t help the situation anyway.” He looked over at Ryu, who looked a bit more confused than upset. “I can explain everything better when we get back…”

Ryu nodded, wrinkling his eyebrows a bit in concentration, “I didn’t think you were married, Hideo-san.”

“I’m not,” he shrugged, “come on, we have to go back in the other direction. I know a place we can stop by on the way.”

* * *

They wound up getting dinner at a bento shop nearby his family home, along with a few snacks and drinks at the convenience store. His older siblings and parents were both out for the night, while his younger ones kept to themselves after introducing themselves. Despite the relative emptiness of the house, they still wound up eating in Hideo’s room.

Katsuhiko sat on the floor next to him, eating his food while occasionally looking up to stare at everyone else. Ryu and Shingen sat across from him at the table, just a bit awkward as they fumbled with their cans of beer.

Hideo looked between the three of them, well aware that he was the only one that could cut through the silence. “Just to make it clear, I’m an omega. The rest of my family are betas, so…” He left it off at that. He extended his left arm, pointing out a spot above his elbow, “I’m on that new suppressant that doubles as birth control, so you don’t have to worry about heats or anything like that.”

That seemed to catch Ryu’s attention. “Oh! That’s the one that had all those commercials a few years ago, right? Everyone was making a big deal about it.”

“Yeah, it’s better than having to rely on two separate things,” he pulled his arm back and picked his chopsticks back up, “my heats used to be really bad, but when I joined the force a few years ago they said I had to get it and it’s worked wonders. I get some of the pre-heat symptoms, but skip the worst of it. So don’t worry about it getting in the way of work.”

Shingen seemed to relax a bit, finally taking a sip of his drink. “I don’t think it would be a big deal anyway. Aren’t there other omegas at the agency?”

“Yeah, but everyone’s different, obviously.” Hideo took a bite of his food, hoping that would put an end to it. His heats had been absolutely debilitating. It had made middle school and his first two years of high school terrible. After his pregnancy and during training, he’d forced himself to work through it because he had to worry about taking care of Katsuhiko, but the implant had really been a lifesaver.

Almost as if he knew he was being thought about, Katsuhiko tugged at his shirt. “_Touchan_, I’m done. Can I play with _bachan_? This is boring.”

Shingen snorted a little into his drink. Ryu looked away but was clearly trying not to laugh.

Hideo rolled his eyes, but looked over his son’s bento. “If you finish your vegetables and wash your hands, _then_ you can ask _obachan_ if she wants to play.” he figured his little sister wouldn’t mind watching over Katsuhiko for a bit, but he’d send a message over LINE first just in case. “Okay?”

With a little bit of a whine, Katsuhiko begrudgingly picked up his chopsticks. He gave Hideo a look that said, “look at how hard I’m trying, you monster,” as he chewed, which was hilarious in its own way. He put them back down and got up in a rush, and then ran to the door, opening it up.

“Do you need help cleaning up?”

“I can do it!” he insisted, making his way out.

“Sorry about that, we’re still working on how to behave around company,” Hideo apologized as he picked up his phone to send the message. “Sachiko will probably watch him for a little while, so—”

“Are you bonded with Katsuhiko’s other father?” Ryu blurted out, and then immediately covered his mouth. He seemed surprised and like he hadn’t meant to say it. “That was rude, I shouldn’t have asked.”

Hideo frowned at that, but he couldn’t really say he was angry about the question. It came up a lot, mostly in relation to his age than anything else. “No, I’m not. Hikaru’s only just as involved as he has to be with us.” His phone buzzed with the notification that Katsuhiko was with Sachiko, and he put it back down. “We broke up after I got pregnant. Katsuhiko is in my family’s registry.”

“Oh.” Ryu seemed to sink down a bit, ducking his head out of guilt.

“It wouldn’t have worked anyway. I had to transfer out for the last year of high school. Putting both of us through that would have been a waste. That’s what everyone told us and he agreed with it – so that’s what happened.” he was still just a little bit bitter about all of it.

At the time, Hikaru had been someone special – they had met during the entrance ceremony and hit it off almost instantly. Hideo would have hung the moon for him, and Hikaru had seemed nothing but dedicated in return. Being dumb teenagers that had thought they were in love, obviously there had been sex. They’d gotten careless after the first time the condom broke and nothing happened, plus there had been promises to bond after graduation.

But then Hideo had started feeling like he wanted to throw up every time he smelled onions and feeling drained even if he’d been just sitting in class. One stolen pregnancy test (courtesy of a friend, not Hideo himself) and a trip to the clinic confirmed the worst – he was almost two months along. He spent the next hour in the exam room, crying and wondering if his life was completely over.

His parents had taken it as best as they could, even when he decided that he wanted to keep it because termination seemed scarier than carrying to term, and he couldn’t imagine giving up his baby after all of that. Hikaru had immediately told Hideo that he wasn’t ready for that level of commitment and didn’t want to be involved. He’d only managed to get the bare minimum of child support after his father and mother had confronted Hikaru’s own parents.

Hideo had gone through all of it on his own. His family had been there to help, but there had been certain things that could only be shared with the other father of his child. Even after Katsuhiko was born, there had only been a few appearances at birthdays and holidays, nothing substantial enough to count as parenting. The weight had fallen onto his shoulders, and he had carried it with all of his might.

“I can’t believe he would want to miss out on all of this,” Ryu suddenly piped up, knocking Hideo out of his thoughts. “Katsuhiko-kun is such a cute kid.”

“You really can’t get moments like this back,” Shingen agreed, nodding his head. “You’ve done a great job so far, Hideo.”

He stared at both of them, a little unsure of what to say. “I think a lot of that can be chalked up to my grandparents. They’ve always helped a lot when I couldn’t be there.”

“That doesn’t change how much you’ve done. Everybody needs help once in a while,” Shingen insisted, deadly serious. “And then to become a police officer on top of all of that? And now an idol? It takes real guts.”

“Oh yeah, that’s a really big career change when you have a kid to worry about.” Ryu slammed both of his hands on the table, knocking over his drink and then quickly catching it before it could spill over, “Ah! Nope! Caught it. Anyway, that settles it. Now we have to make this work. We’re going to become super famous! Everyone’s going to know FRAME.”

“Hideo, we want to do whatever we can to help you two out. You can trust in us.”

Ryu and Shingen’s blinding earnestness hit something deep in Hideo’s chest. His life on this new path had started with the hope that he could make others feel like they always had someone to turn to. But somewhere along the way, he’d forgotten that he needed that support as well – a reminder that it wasn’t just him and Katsuhiko alone against the world. He felt his throat close up a bit and lifted his arm to wipe at his eyes. “Thank you, I’ll do my best too.”

**Author's Note:**

> ...my first SideM fic was supposed to be the Teru one I've been working on for the past year, or the Ryu/Hideo opus I've been planning for just as long. But here we are. 
> 
> This is actually a prequel for a DIFFERENT Ryu/Hideo fic I plan on writing so it's mostly to set stuff up. The kind of hit me and I started writing and somehow finished. I stayed up until 2AM cleaning it up. I hate myself. It takes a little inspiration from Kiraide Isasete. 
> 
> Shout out to [psiten](https://archiveofourown.org/users/psiten/) for doing such a quick beta even though they've never seen anything SideM related ever. You the real OG.


End file.
